A play on the name of the NATO operation “Enhanced Forward Presence” which currently stations Canadian troops in Latvia along the Russian border, Enchanted Forest Presence documents the complicated networks and effects of globalized Western military strategies. Capturing the picturesque forested areas along the Russian border, the images are suggestive of both the nature-based spirituality and how larger political powers manifest in everyday lives and landscapes.
Zile Liepins in a documentary photographer and multi-media visual artist living in Toronto. She completed her Master of Fine Arts degree with distinction in Documentary Media at Ryerson University in 2015. For her thesis work she travelled across Latvia to collect personal impressions of layered Soviet and European influence on Latvian identity. This work was selected for a CONTACT Photography Festival Featured Exhibition in 2015, curated by Noa Bronstein. Her current project, Enchanted Forest Presence, continues and expands on her previous work with a closer focus on military presence and political influence on landscape, architecture and people, while expanding geographically to include the western region of Russia.
Zile has participated in organizing arts residencies and festivals since 2005, when she served as the coordinator of the Latvian cultural season in France Etonnante Lettonie at the Embassy of Latvia in Paris. She is currently Communications and Design Coordinator at the Textile Museum of Canada.
